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Local control first · accounts in your name · every switch still a switch
If we disappeared tomorrow, your house would carry on working.
That's the whole promise, and every decision below follows from it. Nothing here needs us, needs the internet, or needs a company to still be trading in five years for you to be able to turn a light on. The clever parts sit on top of a house that works without them.
The promise, in detail
Six commitments. Ask any installer for these in writing before you spend anything — the good ones will already have said yes to all six.
The accounts are yours, in your name, on your email — Not ours with you added. If you sack us tomorrow you change one password and nothing else happens — no call, no visit, no hostage
The documentation is handed over — A written plan of what's where, what it's called and what it's connected to. Most houses have none of this and it's why the next installer starts by ripping things out
No monthly fee to keep your own lights working — A support contract is a fine thing to sell and it must be optional. If cancelling it turns anything off, that isn't support, it's a lock
Standard protocols wherever there's a choice — So the next person can work on it. Where we do use something proprietary, it's named on the quote with the reason
Nothing is glued shut — Everything can be reversed to an ordinary house in an afternoon, and we'll tell you at the survey which items are the exception
We'll tell you what not to automate — Most houses need about a third of what they're sold. That conversation is the most valuable hour on this page and it's free
The documentation is handed over — A written plan of what's where, what it's called and what it's connected to. Most houses have none of this and it's why the next installer starts by ripping things out
No monthly fee to keep your own lights working — A support contract is a fine thing to sell and it must be optional. If cancelling it turns anything off, that isn't support, it's a lock
Standard protocols wherever there's a choice — So the next person can work on it. Where we do use something proprietary, it's named on the quote with the reason
Nothing is glued shut — Everything can be reversed to an ordinary house in an afternoon, and we'll tell you at the survey which items are the exception
We'll tell you what not to automate — Most houses need about a third of what they're sold. That conversation is the most valuable hour on this page and it's free
Every switch is still a switch
The single rule that separates a smart house from an annoying one, and the one nobody puts on a website.
A light switch still turns the light on — By hand, on the wall, in the dark, with no phone. If a system takes that away it has made your house worse and no amount of scene control makes up for it
Anyone can operate it without being taught — A babysitter, a guest, your mother, a plumber who needs the light on in the loft. If it needs an explanation, we've designed it wrong
The thermostat is still on the wall — With numbers on it. An app is an addition to that, never a replacement for it
Doors open from inside without power — Always, and it is not negotiable. Any lock we fit works as a lock when everything else is off
Nothing important depends on a phone being charged — Phones die and get left in coats. The house cannot need one
Automations are suggestions, not rules — Anything the house does by itself can be overridden by hand, and the override wins until you say otherwise rather than for five minutes
Anyone can operate it without being taught — A babysitter, a guest, your mother, a plumber who needs the light on in the loft. If it needs an explanation, we've designed it wrong
The thermostat is still on the wall — With numbers on it. An app is an addition to that, never a replacement for it
Doors open from inside without power — Always, and it is not negotiable. Any lock we fit works as a lock when everything else is off
Nothing important depends on a phone being charged — Phones die and get left in coats. The house cannot need one
Automations are suggestions, not rules — Anything the house does by itself can be overridden by hand, and the override wins until you say otherwise rather than for five minutes
What happens when the internet goes off
Ask this question of anybody quoting you, and ask it in this form: which of these stops working, and for how long?
Lights, heating and switches: unaffected — They run on a controller in your house, not on somebody's server. This is what "local first" means and it is the whole reason for the extra box in the cupboard
Schedules and automations: unaffected — Same reason. Sunset timings are calculated locally rather than fetched
Remote access: gone until it's back — You cannot check the house from a hotel while the line is down. That's a real loss and it's the honest size of it
Voice assistants: mostly gone — Nearly all of them think in a data centre. This is the one people notice most and it is worth knowing before you build a house around talking to it
Doorbell and camera notifications: gone — The recording usually continues locally if there's a card or a drive in it. Ask specifically — many don't
What we'd never put in the cloud — Locks, alarms and heating. If losing broadband can lock you out of your own house, the design was wrong before the line went down
Schedules and automations: unaffected — Same reason. Sunset timings are calculated locally rather than fetched
Remote access: gone until it's back — You cannot check the house from a hotel while the line is down. That's a real loss and it's the honest size of it
Voice assistants: mostly gone — Nearly all of them think in a data centre. This is the one people notice most and it is worth knowing before you build a house around talking to it
Doorbell and camera notifications: gone — The recording usually continues locally if there's a card or a drive in it. Ask specifically — many don't
What we'd never put in the cloud — Locks, alarms and heating. If losing broadband can lock you out of your own house, the design was wrong before the line went down
Systems we work with, and all of them run locally
KNXZigbeeZ-WaveMatterThreadHome AssistantLoxoneDALI
Replace with your own. Naming the protocol rather than the brand is the useful version — a protocol outlives the company that sold you the box.
The survey, and what it checks
Published in advance rather than being the thing you have to book to find out. Most people can answer half of it from the sofa, and doing that turns a two-hour survey into an hour.
The survey, and what it checks
The consumer unit
How many circuits, how much spare capacity, and whether the lighting is on one circuit or six. This decides more than any product choice.
The walls
Solid or stud, and what's behind them. A solid wall means no new cable without a chase, and a chase means a decorator.
Where a cupboard could go
A controller and a rack need somewhere ventilated and reachable. Under the stairs is the answer about half the time.
The network, honestly
Where the line comes in, what the walls do to wifi, and whether there's any cable in the house at all. Usually the real constraint.
What's already there
Existing kit gets reused wherever it can be. Ripping out a working thermostat to sell you ours is not a survey finding.
Who lives here
Children, tenants, someone who hates technology, someone who can't reach a switch. This changes the design more than the building does.
What it costs, and what to do first
The survey is charged and then deducted — Put your own figure here. Charging for it keeps out the people collecting four free surveys, and deducting it means nobody pays twice
Start with lighting, and only lighting — It is the thing you touch forty times a day and the only one everybody notices. Heating second. Everything else is optional and most of it stays optional
Wire while the walls are open, install later — If there's building work happening, cable is nearly free now and brutally expensive afterwards. We'll spec the cable even if you never call us again
Buy fewer, better things — Twelve cheap sockets is twelve things to replace. This is the one place where the expensive answer is usually the cheap one
No subscription for anything essential — If a feature needs a monthly fee, it's named on the quote with the fee next to it rather than discovered in month four
What we'd talk you out of — Automated blinds in a room you're never in. A fridge that orders milk. Voice control in a bedroom. We'll say so and it costs us the sale
Start with lighting, and only lighting — It is the thing you touch forty times a day and the only one everybody notices. Heating second. Everything else is optional and most of it stays optional
Wire while the walls are open, install later — If there's building work happening, cable is nearly free now and brutally expensive afterwards. We'll spec the cable even if you never call us again
Buy fewer, better things — Twelve cheap sockets is twelve things to replace. This is the one place where the expensive answer is usually the cheap one
No subscription for anything essential — If a feature needs a monthly fee, it's named on the quote with the fee next to it rather than discovered in month four
What we'd talk you out of — Automated blinds in a room you're never in. A fridge that orders milk. Voice control in a bedroom. We'll say so and it costs us the sale
The handover, which is the part that matters in year three
Every system on this page will outlive somebody's involvement with it — ours, a manufacturer's, or yours if you sell the house. So the handover is designed for that day rather than for the day it's finished.
A written plan of the house — What's where, what it's called, what it's connected to and which circuit it's on. One PDF and one printed copy in the cupboard, because the PDF will be on a laptop that's been replaced
Every account in your name — Set up on your email from the start rather than transferred at the end. Transfers are where these things go wrong
Passwords written down and handed over — All of them, including the ones we'd rather you didn't need. A system only we can get into is a system you don't own
An hour of teaching, with whoever else lives there — Not just the person who commissioned it. The commonest failure of a smart house is that one person understands it
What to do when something breaks — One page: what to try, what to unplug, what to ring about. Written for somebody who is annoyed and in a hurry
What a new owner gets — The same pack. If you sell, they inherit a documented house rather than a mystery, and that is worth more than any of it at the point of sale
Every account in your name — Set up on your email from the start rather than transferred at the end. Transfers are where these things go wrong
Passwords written down and handed over — All of them, including the ones we'd rather you didn't need. A system only we can get into is a system you don't own
An hour of teaching, with whoever else lives there — Not just the person who commissioned it. The commonest failure of a smart house is that one person understands it
What to do when something breaks — One page: what to try, what to unplug, what to ring about. Written for somebody who is annoyed and in a hurry
What a new owner gets — The same pack. If you sell, they inherit a documented house rather than a mystery, and that is worth more than any of it at the point of sale
How far we travel
About an hour from the workshop — Set your own radius and mean it. A smart house needs somebody who can come back, and an installer two hours away will not come back for a light that flickers
Further for a whole-house wire-up — Where there's building work and we're on site for weeks anyway, distance matters less. Ask
We don't take on a house we can't return to — It sounds like turning down money and it is. It's also the reason the older installations still work
Further for a whole-house wire-up — Where there's building work and we're on site for weeks anyway, distance matters less. Ask
We don't take on a house we can't return to — It sounds like turning down money and it is. It's also the reason the older installations still work
Book a survey
Answer what you can from the list above — it genuinely halves the visit. A reply within two working days, and an honest word if the answer is that you need an electrician rather than us.
Book a survey
"Somebody who'd rather it stayed simple" is the most useful answer on the form. It changes the design and it is the reason a lot of these installations get liked instead of tolerated.
Live preview — every color, word and block is editable after you pick it.